SERVICE LEARNING FOR GIFTED LEARNERS

1. SERVICE LEARNING FOR GIFTED LEARNERS Social Action

2. Social Action • Transform your creative thinking into actions that make a difference in your neighborhood, your town or city, your state, your country and your world. Find a problem that you care about and decide how to solve it. Social action is not volunteer work. Both are helpful but only social action requires you to be the manager. You may partner with an organization but you must have creative control over the implementation of the project.

3. Fluency • Fluent thinking is the mental flow of ideas and thoughts. It is the ability to produce a large quantity of creative ideas. Fluency activities may ask the learner to generate answers to questions of how many, what kinds, or what else. Fluent thinkers produce lots of ideas. • Fluency tasks cause a search through the learner’s private collection or store house of knowledge and experiences for all possible responses. Brainstorming in small groups promotes fluency, as one person’s idea’s triggers more responses from other members of the group. It’s important in fluency exercises to with hold all judgments of right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, because attention is placed on quantity rather than quality of the responses. This allows for an uninterrupted flow of thoughts and ideas and a search for all possibilities. The rationalization for promoting fluent thinking is that the more responses that are produced, the greater is the likelihood of producing an original idea or of producing a satisfactory solution. If you have twenty ideas to choose from, you have a greater probability of having a quality idea within that group that if you have only two ideas. • You will use fluent thinking to come up with project ideas. • Taken from Imagination Celebration Dandy Lion Productions, 1994

4. Flexibility • Flexible thinking extends fluent thinking. Flexibility results in may different kinds of ideas. It is the ability to look at things from different angles, see the situation from several perspectives. It is the ability to shift trains of thought and produce a variety of ideas. The flexible thinker produces original ideas by forcing associations not usually thought of in an given context. A students who thinks flexibly often redefines mental sets by viewing things from other perspectives. The flexible thinker responds well to the questions of “What else is possible?” or “What is another way of looking at this?” • For example, if asked what ways an empty paper towel tube could be used, a flexible response might be to use it as a measure for spaghetti or as a tunnel for ants. When asked what one dangling earring could be used for, the flexible thinker might suggest using it as a chandelier in a doll house or as a fishing lure. The flexible thinker will be able to produce a variety of ideas. From this ability to see things from many different angles come the ability to produce a larger quantity of ideas (fluency) and more unique ideas (originality). • You will use flexibility when you present, defend and consider steps to achieving you goal or what you have predetermined as success. Other students will question, critique and suggestion how to complete your project in a controlled Q and A session • Taken from: Imagination Celebration, Dancly Lion Publications, 1994

5. Real World Problem • Ask Seymour Papert, renowned expert on children and computing, why students are turned off by school, and he quickly offers an example: • "We teach numbers, then algebra, then calculus, then physics. Wrong!" exclaims the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician, a pioneer in artificial intelligence. "Start with engineering, and from that abstract out physics, and from that abstract out ideas of calculus, and eventually separate off pure mathematics. So much better to have the first-grade kid or kindergarten kid doing engineering and leave it to the older ones to do pure mathematics than to do it the other way around." • In a growing number of schools, educators are echoing Papert's assertion that engaging students by starting with the concrete and solving hands-on, real-world problems is a great motivator. Ultimately, they say, such project-based learning that freely crosses disciplines provides an education superior to the traditional "algebra at age nine, Civil War at ten, Great Expectations at eleven" structure. • LA Oral Language 6.1 6.26.57.17.27.37.67.8 8.3 CE 3 CE 9 C/T 8.4

6. Characteristics of Gifted Learners • highly curious • Is attentive Is mentally and physically involved • Asks the questions • Has wild, silly ideas • Discusses in detail, elaborates • Beyond the group • Shows strong feelings and opinions •  Already knows •  1-2 repetitions for mastery • Constructs abstractions •  Prefers adults • Draws inferences • Initiates projects • Is intense • Creates a new design • Enjoys Learning • Manipulates information •  Inventor •  Good guesser •  Thrives on complexityIs keenly observant •  Is highly self-critical

7. Facilitating Student Success • Articles about kids who designed and completed a social actions project • Discuss how kids “run” the economy after watching a 60 minutes segment on Echo boomers • Smithsonian Lunch Counter Training Center

8. Lunch Counter Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=inyNuo6qD5s#!

9. Telephoning Skills • It is important to have kids write what they want to say before they call. They don’t always know what to say on the phone. This was true for the young ladies who wanted to use their basement as a refuge for stray cats. After they had nurtured the cats they wanted to turn them over to Animal Control until they found out how long animal control kept them before they put them to sleep. Remind kids not to give last names when they call and to leave the schools’ call back number unless they have parental approval. I had a child working to publicize missing and exploited children in the prince William area. When she called the center for Missing and exploited children in Alexandria they asked her name and she told them upfront “ I’m not giving you my last name.”

10. Letter Writing • Letter Writing- • Parkside Administration, • We are a group of gifted resource students in the process of doing a social action project. A social action project is a project where gifted students transform their creative thinking and gifted characteristics into actions that make a difference. This year we have decided for our social action project to fundraise for a charitable organization. All the proceeds would be donated to our charity. • We request your permission to sell baked or store bought goods at a few home games at Parkside. We would like to do this during outdoor sport seasons. People who are attending the games or meets could buy these foods. We would sell different foods than the current concessions and would not compete with them. We would include an ingredients list for every item and also a statement of our liability. This would raise a lot of money for our charity. • If you could please contact us with your response as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated. We will need time to put everything together. If you have any questions about what we are planning please contact us through Mr. Nicholas. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our request. • Sincerely, • Sami Kosaraju • Riley Huber • And other 8th grade gifted students who will help

11. Interviewing Tips • Interviewing Tips-We literally had to practice this. We had a kid who was good at mocking our Principal, but did ask the kind of questions and made the kind of comments she would make. This is helpful for the students attempting to reverse the gum chewing rule and the no hat rule. Worksheets come from the Kid’s Guide to Social Action by Barbara Lewis

12. Petitions • Petitions– 1. Use regular paper to describe your problem and collect signatures. 2. Give your petition a title. 3. Identify your group. 4. Identify the official or agency that will receive your petition. 5. Write a statement describing the problem you want to resolve or the plan you’re proposing. This should be at the top of each petition page so that people can’t say they didn’t understand what they were signing. 6. Provide blank lines after your statement for people to write any or all of these: • Their signature • Their class, grade or group • Their school or hometown • Their address and phone number • Number the signature lines for easy totaling. 7.Only student who needed this information was the student who was attempting to get skate parks in Prince William County. 8. Smile! The better you treat the people you meet, the more likely they’ll sign your petition. 9.Some people you ask to sign your petition might disagree with you. Keep calm and stay polite anyway. Never speak or act rudely. 10. When you’re through collecting signatures, photocopy all the pages of your petition. Keep the copy in a safe place. You may need proof of all the signature later, if your original is lost. 11. Present you petition to someone who has the power to act on your ideas.

13. Surveys • Surveys - • This survey form can be used to tally people’s responses to your survey. • STATEMENT OR QUESTIONS • 1_____________________________________________________________ • 2_____________________________________________________________ • 3_____________________________________________________________ • 4._____________________________________________________________ • 5._____________________________________________________________ • RESPONSES • SA=Strongly Agree A=Agree D=Disagree SD=Strongly Disagree U=Undecided

14. Fundraising • Fundraising – A lot students raise money for Victims of Hurricane Katrina. The bake sale girls organized, cooked, advertised, and sold their goods in front of Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. They involved their families especially grand parents who didn’t think they could cook and our own family consumer department who cheerfully let them bake during Signet time days before the event.

15. Evaluation and Inspiration • Evaluation and Inspiration– It is always important to have students evaluate themselves, their projects and the projects of their peers .They often like to write, draw or dramatize their experiences like an interview with the principal or the head of the VOLT (Virginia Outdoor Lighting). Some kept journals. They were all very good at being critical of other’s work but did provide solutions. • It is also important to inspire students when they might get discouraged or impatiently waiting a response from someone of authority. Have students share success stories and read about other student across the nation making a difference. One of my young ladies successfully organized a bunch of adult riders to clean up the riding arena in her area and took pictures. Several stellar foreign language students served as translators and greeters in the front office after they noticed a problem that adults in the building had overlooked: We were a foreign language school but did not have any one in the front office that spoke the languages of our students’ parents.

16. gninnalP sdrawkcaB Ideally what would you like to happen? What would make your project “successful”? What’s the first step to achieving what you want?

17. Social Action Review • Name:_________________________________________ Date_____________________ • 1. What is your social action project? • 2. What is your goal and what do you plan to accomplish? • 3. What was the first step? • 4. What questions or steps did your peers ask or suggest? Please list them. • 5. Have you been successful in achieving your goal? If so, why or why not? • 6. What skills, ideas, or new information have you learned thus far? • 7. Were there any obstacles or challenges? List them. • 8. What changes occurred as a result of your social action project? • 9. If this was a graded assignment, what grade would you give yourself thus far? Why? • 10. Create your own power point presentation about your project and include the rubric.

18. Practical Use How could you incorporate service learning or social action projects as a part of your curriculum or every day life?

19. Social action in Action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za_aaanFo5Q&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zHESKyxrxJM